Afghan government denies deliberately preventing Pakistani delegation from landing in Kabul

KABUL: The Afghan government on Wednesday rejected reports that an aircraft carrying a Pakistani parliamentary delegation was deliberately prevented by authorities from landing in Kabul last week.
Pakistan National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser left for Kabul with a nine-member delegation on the morning of April 8 on the invitation of the chairman of Afghanistan’s lower house, Mir Rahman Rahmani, to hold wide-ranging discussions, including on Afghan peace and cross-border trade. 
The plane was turned back as it was about to descend at Kabul airport, over what was reported to be a security threat.
Tariq Aryan, a spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry, said at least four other flights were also prevented from landing at the airport that day as officials had to shut the facility to disarm an “an old explosive.”
“The airport was shut because this explosive was found,” Aryan told Arab News. “There was no other thing.”
The incident led to outrage among Afghan members of parliament, who summoned the chiefs of the country’s security establishment, including the interior minister, for a briefing on the matter.
“Their reasoning and explanations were not compelling to the lawmakers because they [Pakistani lawmakers] could have been informed about this [security threat] way ahead of the departure of his [Qaiser’s] flight,” Sadiq Ahmad Osmani, a lawmaker from Parwan province, told Arab News.
“We had full preparations, high protocol for his trip here, but unfortunately the news of the security threat there totally damaged our national hospitality. There are some at the top who had created the problem. It was an improper move,” he added.
Allah Gul Mujahid, a lawmaker from Kabul, said no trips by visiting officials had been canceled in the past 20 years over minor security threats.
Nazir Ahmad Hanaif, a lawmaker from Herat, openly blamed President Ashraf Ghani for the cancelation of Qaiser’s visit. Ghani’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
“He [Ghani] wants to damage further relations between the two countries,” Hanafi told Arab News, adding that the visit could have opened a new chapter in Pakistani-Afghan relations.